Police to track Moscow metro passengers’ SIM cards

The Moscow metro plans to install sensors that will trace passengers by tracking the SIM cards in their mobile phones. The measure is aimed at helping police retrieve stolen gadgets, but rights activists have sounded the privacy alarm over the initiative.

Police operations chief of the Moscow metro, Andrey Mokhov, told
Izvestia newspaper that the sensors will become part of the
subway’s intelligent security system. According to Mokhov, the
action radius of each reading device is five meters. For the
system to be successful, he said the devices would have to be
installed into every CCTV camera inside stations, lobbies, and
metro cars.

The passenger’s phone number will be automatically determined as
he passes near the sensor. If the SIM card is on the ‘missing’
list, the system will automatically inform police and create a
map of the phone’s movement. The system will work regardless of
whether the phone is on or off. The only important thing is the
presence of a SIM card.

“If the passenger’s phone is stolen, he can address the police
and the duty officer will input its number into the system, which
will reveal the station where the SIM card was detected,”
Mokhov explained.

Meanwhile, rights activists both inside and outside of Russia
have already come forward to slam the initiative, saying that it
harshly violates people's privacy. The plan to implement the
system is also a violation of Russian law, director of the Public
Verdict human rights foundation, Natalia Taubina, said.

“Several people can pass through the sensor and camera action
radius. The question is how the police will choose the suspect
then. Checking everybody – it’s simply illegal,” she said.

However, the Interior Ministry believes the system will be
implicated without any legal complications.

“By law, we are not allowed to trace a person without
appropriate sanctions,” Mokhov explained. “But we can keep
track of the property of companies, which is exactly what SIM
cards are.”

Using such a legal loophole to justify the tracking of a person
from a SIM card is “nonsensical and unjustifiable,” Eric
King of Privacy International told Ars Technica.

Mobile phone theft is the most frequent crime to take place on
the Moscow metro. However, executive director of the Security
Industry Association, Aleksandr Ivanchenko, says the sensor
system does not appear to be the most efficient way to
tackle the problem.

“Obviously, the cost of this system is incomparable to the
value of all the stolen phones,” he said. “Effective
anti-theft technologies already exist and they are well known. In
the US, for example, the owner of the stolen phone just needs to
call his operator and [the] device stops working, even if its SIM
card was replaced.”

Attorney Georgy Ter-Akopov said that the thieves usually dispose
of the SIM card after they get hold of the phone. After that, the
phone can still be traced by its own International Mobile Station
Equipment Identy (IMEI) number. However, he stressed that the
mobile device is the property of the passenger – not the phone
company.

Retired police colonel Evgeny Chernousov suggested that the
sensors have another aim – to identify terrorists on the metro.
Since the early 2000s, there have been three terrorist attacks on
the Moscow metro. The attacks resulted in 90 deaths and over 200
injuries.

“The events of recent years have shown that the existing
hardware isn’t always enough to search for terrorists. The
ability to quickly track down criminals on the phone can help
prevent a terrorist attack on the subway,” Chernousov
said.